HONG KONG — Businesses and consumers in China found the annual Singles’ Day shopping festival less attractive this year due to a sluggish economy, forcing e-commerce firms to look abroad for growth. Online service provider and e-commerce platform Alibaba started the now-famous event on Nov. 11, 2009, offering attractive discounts to entice shoppers to spend more.
The extravaganza, also known as “Double 11,” has since expanded to other platforms in China — such as JD.com and Pinduoduo — and abroad. It has long been regarded as a barometer of consumer sentiment.
While Singles’ Day was previously a one-day event, shopping platforms in China now kickstart the festival weeks ahead to drum up sales volume. Even some brick-and-mortar stores join the festival by launching sales campaigns and hanging promotional banners and posters in the hopes of luring shoppers. But amid China’s lagging domestic economy, dragged down by a real estate crisis and deflationary pressures , consumers no longer go all out during the shopping extravaganza.
Meanwhile, e-commerce platforms grappling with a slowing domestic market have turned to overseas markets to seek new growth, offering promotions like global free shipping and allowing merchants to sell worldwide with ease. Alibaba, for example, said in a blog post on its Alizila site that some 70,000 merchants saw sales double with global free shipping. In markets like Singapore and Hong Kong , new customers also doubled, the e-commerce c.